


What You Do For a Friend

by tekaokitsu



Category: Minecraft (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Asexual Technoblade (Video Blogging RPF), Author Projecting onto TommyInnit (Video Blogging RPF), Bisexual Wilbur Soot, Child Abuse, Cliffhangers, Daddy Issues, Eret protects Tommy, Family Issues, Fluff, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, Gay Tubbo, Gen, He/Him Pronouns For Tommyinnit, How Do I Tag, Hurt TommyInnit (Video Blogging RPF), Hurt/Comfort, Multiple Pronouns for Eret (Video Blogging RPF), No Romance, No Smut, Scared TommyInnit (Video Blogging RPF), Set in 2021, Sleepy Bois Inc Fluff, Sleepy Bois Inc as Family, Sleepy Bois Inc-centric, The Author Regrets Everything, This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things, TommyInnit Has Abandonment Issues (Video Blogging RPF), TommyInnit Needs a Hug (Video Blogging RPF), Trans Male TommyInnit (Video Blogging RPF), Trans TommyInnit (Video Blogging RPF), Transphobia, hmmm, its found family, kind of, no beta we die like men, should phil adopt tommy?, their family jesus christ, this is gonna get real sad, tommy comfort
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-27
Updated: 2021-03-17
Packaged: 2021-03-18 00:14:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 6
Words: 15,962
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29725377
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tekaokitsu/pseuds/tekaokitsu
Summary: Tommy is 16, Tubbo is 17, Techno is 21, Wilbur is 24, Phil is 32-He couldn’t remember the last time he was in the car with Wilbur and Techno. Even though they were both more than four years older it had a sense of calmness and safety, and it was amazing that he still had these moments when Techno would brave the overwhelming airports to come visit him and the rest of the friend group, it made him feel oddly happy and he was grateful that Techno did that to come see them.
Relationships: Eret & TommyInnit (Video Blogging RPF), No Romantic Relationship(s), Phil Watson & Technoblade - Relationship, Phil Watson & Toby Smith | Tubbo, Phil Watson & Wilbur Soot, Sleepy Bois Inc. Family Dynamic - Relationship, Toby Smith | Tubbo & Phil Watson, Toby Smith | Tubbo & Technoblade, Toby Smith | Tubbo & TommyInnit, TommyInnit & Phil Watson, TommyInnit & Technoblade, Tommyinnit & Toby Smith | Tubbo, Wilbur Soot & Technoblade, Wilbur Soot & Technoblade & TommyInnit & Phil Watson, Wilbur Soot & Toby Smith | Tubbo, Wilbur Soot & TommyInnit
Comments: 50
Kudos: 387





	1. Brighton Pier

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [mcyt prompts (mostly tommy)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/28681869) by [idontwannaputmywattpadusername](https://archiveofourown.org/users/idontwannaputmywattpadusername/pseuds/idontwannaputmywattpadusername). 



> i haven't written any thing in a long time and this wasn't proof-read or beta-read, so hopefully this doesn't go poorly!  
> please let me know if i made spelling mistakes and if you've gone to brighton pier please tell me if i messed up on how you go there, i don't know if it has its own parking lot or if you park nearby then walk there and i can't figure it out

Tommy closed his eyes, leaning his head against the car door as the open window caused wind to comb through his hair and attack his shut closed eyes in a strangely calming way, his breathing slowing to the point you would most likely mistake him for being asleep as he relaxed.

He couldn’t remember the last time he was in the car with Wilbur and Techno. Even though they were both more than four years older it had a sense of calmness and safety, reminding him of road trips where his father had driven for hours from 3 AM until 6 AM to take him to a camping spot when he was around six. Those years with his father were much better, but he wasn’t complaining when he still had these moments when Techno would brave the overwhelming airports to come visit him and the rest of the friend group, it made him feel oddly happy and he was grateful that Techno did that to come see them.

At that moment Wilbur was driving and Techno was on the left backseat while Tommy was in the right, the younger simply quietly relaxing while Techno and Wilbur talked. He was used to it annoying the others in the car when he rolled the window down to ease his mind but Wilbur and Techno never minded it, seeming to understand that the kid used it to calm himself.

As Wilbur finally pulled into the mall parking lot and rolled Tommy's window up, the kid let out a groan, opening his eyes to look at Wilbur, who had now attacked his calming moment. “Fuck you.”  
Wilbur and Techno chuckled a little as Wilbur unlocked the doors and turned off the car, allowing them all out of the car. Tommy was fast to unbuckle his seatbelt, hop out, and stretch out his arms, feeling something soft prod his arm and glancing to the side where he saw Techno.  
“Mask.” The adult in this situation reminded him, and he just smiled a little before putting on the mask.

He shoved his hands into his hoodie pocket as they walked into a little store in the mall that had a bunch of pins and merch, he'd seen a sign above the door that had said "Blue Banana", and now he was eyeing a stand with a various assortment of pride pins. More specifically, a trans one and a gay one.

Now the thing is, Tommys out to Techno. That was a little accidental, but still. But he isn’t out to Wilbur at all. So he can’t grab that amazingly cool transgender pin, or the gay one he also wants beside it, because by god he wants both, but he didn’t bring enough money to buy two pins because he could get one and snacks, he was deadset on getting ALOT of snacks, but not both. He didn’t take his eyes off the pins for a moment and by now Techno was noticing and Wilbur just thought he was interested in the flags.

Techno watched him for a moment then once Wilbur wasn’t looking grabbed both the pins and slipped them into his pocket, before walking away from the stand with a dumbfounded Tommy.  
Tommy shook his head a moment after that, looking at Techno. “What was that?” He only got a grin and a “You looked like you wanted it.” In return before they ended up leaving the store cause no one wanted anything else.  
Other than Wilbur buying Tommy a GIR hoodie because..  
Who doesn’t want a GIR hoodie?  
Well, apparently Techno and Wilbur, but Tommy wanted it and that’s what matters.  
That’s when Tommy realized Techno didn’t buy the pins and instead stole them, but he couldn’t say much about it anymore without getting his friend in trouble.

It wasn’t long before Tommy got his nearly-expensive 7 bags of snacks and a box of Cola, his two friends being shocked as he bought all of it.  
“Tommy, how can you calmly buy that much junk food?” Wilbur asked.  
Tommy smiled at him, “I’m a streamer, my friend. And a child. Plus there will be five people by the end of today.”  
Techno rolled his eyes and shook his head, “Let’s just go get the poor kid waiting for us.”

Tommy this time was in the middle of the back of the car, because they had gone and picked up Tubbo from his parents and now they were going to Brighton Pier while Phil would show up to Brighton Pier around twenty minutes after them, driving by himself.  
Techno rolled down his window luckily to give Tommy his required air noise, causing Tommy to lean on Technos shoulder to be closer to the sound and cold calming air, eventually falling asleep by accident.  
In his defense, Techno didn’t stop him from leaning and he was tired. How do you not fall asleep on your ~~family~~ friends shoulder in that situation?

Tommy woke up from Techno using his arm that wasn’t attached to a shoulder used for sleeping to gently shake him as he muttered a quiet “wake up”, the younger making a quiet tired noise and looking up to see they were in a parking spot near the pier.  
Tommy smiled brightly while Techno opened his door and got out, stretching his previously trapped shoulder.  
Tommy got out using Technos door, then ran to Tubbo and hugged him since he hadn’t gotten to when they picked him up due to the fact they had to stop on the side of the road then quickly get back into the road as soon as Tubbo darted into the car. Tubbo was very fast to hug back, but the hug ended pretty fast as Tommy grabbed his seven fucking bags of drinks and snacks and also the box of Cola.

The walk to be at the pier was calm for the most part, of course with Tommy pulling out his jokes and insults from time to time. After around fifteen minutes they were on the pebbles and Tommy set down the bags while Tubbo set down the box he’d carried, which Tommy was grateful for. He thanked Tubbo quietly then watched as Wilbur laid down a large blanket and moved the bags and box onto the blanket. However, for now, it was water time. Tommy was already in shorts, which is similar to swim shorts, and he isn’t taking off his shirt so he wasted no time to run to the water and jump in, Tubbo following without hesitation, though the older boy actually took off his shirt.  
Techno and Wilbur stayed on land until Tommy ran to them with water in his hands and threw it on Techno, which immediately initiated a fight and caused Tommy to have to run for his life to the water to dive in and hide from an ‘angry’ man.  
“Tommy, come here!” Techno yelled.  
“Never! You cannot catch me-” Tommy suddenly shrieked as Techno nearly grabbed the back of his shirt, causing him to push himself to run even faster. “Tubbo!”

However, with the growing pain in his ribs, running got harder mid-way and he slowed a little without noticing a foot away from the water- just enough for him to be snatched into the water by Tubbo who yelled a quick ‘I got you big man!’, though he still got tackled by Techno.

Which resulted in well, Techno jumping onto two children shorter than him and them all being forced underwater. Doing an amazing job of terrifying Phil who just showed up to the pier and immediately ran over to Wilbur to check with him and make sure they were not murdering each other.

Techno pulled Tommy up above the water to allow him to avoid pain of the binder, allowing Tubbo to get himself up, which he did. The three laughed, and Wilbur has been laughing the entire time. It wasn’t long before they left the water and Tubbo hugged Phil for a second, then they all sat on the blanket and chilled for the rest of the few hours before sunset. Then it was time for Tommy to head home.

Half the snacks were gone, and he decided to leave them with his friends for them to make sure they weren’t all eaten before they got to hang out again the next day. Wilbur, Techno, Tubbo, and him got into Wilburs car while Phil drove his own car straight to Wilburs apartment after already saying his goodbye for the day to Tommy. A scene similar to the second time they were in the car happened, though this time Tommy was just straight up exhausted and chose to lean on Techno and fall asleep on him without the excuse of the window being down. To save his arm joints from this child, Techno wrapped his arm around him. Which was also caused by Tommy not even putting on his seatbelt before he straight up passed out on the older. And also was Techno slipping the pins into Tommy’s hoodie pocket instead of them being hidden in his jeans pocket.

“Big man! Wake up!” Was what Tommy woke up to. He took a second to recognize the voice as Tubbos, yawning and leaning away from Techno, now controlling his weight and not putting all of it on the poor guy who was a pillow for a while.

“What..?” The tired teen mumbled, before recognizing his house in front of the stopped car. “Ah.. Home.” He sighed, the sentence a little more upset than he’d intended. He then laughed to cover it, “Thanks guys! Especially you Techno, sorry I fell asleep on you.” The reaction from the near-eldest was just a small smile and a nod as he got out to both stretch his arm again without hitting Tubbo and allow Tommy out of the car.

Tommy opened the passenger door for a second to be able to speak to Wilbur, “Hey, Wilbur, when are you picking me up?”

“I’ll pick you up tomorrow. Per request of your dad however, Tubbo will be in the car instead of me picking you up alone and you will be picked up after 12 PM and home at 8 PM. He behaves as if it’s me taking his adult daughter on a date, gross..”

Tommy let out his signature loud laugh despite the slight hurt to the ‘daughter’ part, before nodding a little as he tried to remind himself Wilbur didn’t know. “Thanks, big man! I’ll see you all tomorrow, then.” He shut his door, flinching a little when Techno leaned a little closer just to quietly remind him, “Take off your binder before you sleep, if you text me again whining about how you forgot to take it off somehow don’t say I didn’t remind you.” He then got back in the car.

Tommy smiled at the friendly worry, waving to Techno as a way of assuring him he’d do as he said, making sure he had his phone, wallet, and everything in his bag then he gave a thumbs up to Wilbur and walked inside, Wilbur driving off while he did. He slipped the pins out of his pocket and onto his hoodie, hoping his father wasn’t in the living room to scold him.

.. Sadly, he was.


	2. I Think This Time I'm Dying

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> tommy gets comfort, paints his nails with eret, and gets a hug from techno

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i decided to post this now (almost 5 am) since i'm probably gonna update this daily 
> 
> also you may have noticed theres now a set amount of chapters  
> we aren't gonna hit double digits my dudes  
> sad

Tommy inhaled sharply as he heard footsteps coming from the kitchen right after he shut the front door, glancing down at the pins on his chest in an attempt to avoid eye contact when his father stepped into the living room.

He could hear the scowl in his fathers voice as he was immediately attacked with yelling. “Are you seriously wearing those stupid pins again?! How can you be ‘proud’ when you’re ruining our family? You’re why your mother left, you know that!”

Tommy shook his head a little, trying to stop paying attention and managing to for maybe ten minutes while somehow still hearing and kind of listening to what he said, before his fathers voice snapped right through his thoughts. “You’re disgusting. You’re a gay tranny and you are my daughter, get over this stupid phase.” 

And from that point on, all Tommy could do was listen and try his best to not start full-on sobbing despite the fact he was already crying. 

Once about half an hour of his father yelling at him and him sometimes desperately trying to get a response in and immediately being shut down finally passed, he finally managed to slip past his dad, running up to his room and shutting the door behind himself.

He slowly let out a pained breath before he finally started sobbing, rushing over to his desktop and opening discord. 

He scrolled through his DMs, most of the people he had friended were offline at that moment, he was about to stop before he saw that Eret was online and hesitated. 

Eret was one of the few people he was out to. The small list was Eret, Techno, his parents, and one of his closer friends from when he was very young. 

He had a fairly large amount of times he had called Eret in the middle of sobbing as the guy was kind of who he had to look up to in a life where he’s trans and his father’s an absolute idiot. Though usually that was dysphoria caused, and not yelling caused. 

He clicked on the DMs and hovered his cursor over the call button for a moment, before huffing and deciding to text her first to make sure it wasn’t a bad time to call, incase someone was with Eret.

_ ‘hey eret, you free to call?’ _

_ ‘Yeah! Go ahead, I’m home alone right now’ _

The teen couldn’t help the small sigh of relief. He clicked the call button and let himself fall onto his chair, starting to wipe his tears away as Eret accepted the call right when he heard his dad leave the house. He smiled towards her due to the fact it was a video call, him and Eret almost always used video calls so he had decided to keep up that tradition. “Hi, Eret.”

“Hello!” Eret greeted, though then they quickly noticed the broken voice and tears coming from the younger boy. “Oh- Tommy? Are you alright?”

Tommy slowly shook his head.

“Would you like to talk about it?”

“..No, not right now. I kinda wanted a distraction.”

Eret was quick to nod and smile at him. “Of course! What’d you do today?”

“Well uh- I was picked up by Wilbur today, we went to the mall with Techno and they let me have my window down, which made me happy.. Techno got me these two pins. Or well, he stole them for me, then we got snacks and uh.. We went and picked up Tubbo, then we went to Brighton Pier where we met up with Phil,” Tommy paused, before continuing. 

“I swam with Tubbo then went and dumped some water on Techno, and he chased me to the water then tackled me into it right when Tubbo pulled me in to try and ‘save’ me from it, which kind of pushed us underwater, but he brought me back up cause of the binder.. And then we all sat down and ate and talked, then once it was night Wil took me home and Techno gave me the pins.” He concluded the explanation, leaving out how he fell asleep on Techno twice, only realizing when he stopped talking that he wasn’t crying or sobbing anymore, only sometimes sniffing or letting out a breath a bit worse than the other breaths.

Eret smiled at him. “So today wasn’t all bad, huh? Something happen with your dad when you got home?”

Tommy nodded a little, causing Eret to quickly get up. “Alright well, we haven’t painted our nails in a while so..” He disappeared out of shot for a few moments, causing Tommy to feel weirdly alone while curious at the same time until Eret appeared with a few nail polish bottles, “Time for polishing! Grab your bottles.”

Tommy smiled, getting his bottles from his drawer and setting them on his desk. They moved to a call in their own little server they used for their little ‘LGBT - Legendary Gay Bi Time’s, Eret quickly adding Rythm to the call and playing Sweater Weather and Daddy Issues on loop whilst they painted their nails, the call warm and lighthearted as Eret gave Tommy the distraction he needed, the two often joking or singing along to or humming along to the song playing. 

Right when Tommy finished painting his nails to be rainbow-colored he felt his breathing catch in his throat as there was a sudden loud bang on his door and it was thrown open. He turned his chair to face his father and tensed as the smell of alcohol immediately hit him, causing him to move his chair closer to the computer as Eret asked if he was okay and he quickly moved his headphones off his head.

He could barely hear his father as he started screaming at him, cursing and calling him slurs. He frequently recognized the T slur, F slur, and other slurs in all of his sentences, and soon his brain clicked back into place and all of the words his father he had said in the past 14 minutes came rushing into his memory and he almost immediately went back to his broken state and sobbing.

He shakily pushed the headphones into a position where he could hear what Eret was saying but they were dead silent other than their small noises of surprise at what Tommy's father was saying. 

He removed his headphones from his shoulders and set them on his desk and went over to his father, raising his voice to nearly be a scream, “Get out of my room and leave me the fuck alone.” It hurt. It made his throat burn, his lungs ache, and his ribs mimic the feeling of a knife, but at that point he had no idea what else to do. 

There was a flash of something in his vision before he flinched and stumbled back as his ears started ringing and his face started to sting in both his upper cheek and eye. 

He inhaled, attempting to punch his father in the arm, instead his hand hit the wall with a painful thud due to his now shaky co-ordination, so he opted for nearly screaming again, “Get out!”

That time his father realized what he’d just done to his son, and he quickly stepped out and shut the door. Tommy couldn’t do anything but stare in frozen shock until he walked back to his computer and slowly sat down, turning to face Eret and putting on his headphones. “Eret..?” He mumbled quietly as he saw the look of horror on his friends face.

Eret forced on a look of calmness, though it also held a large amount of concern and pain for Tommy. “..Tommy, does your father always do that?”

“..If he’s drunk, he sometimes does, yeah. He always yells at me though.”

“Oh, Tommy.. I’m so sorry. Is your mom there?”

“No, my parents are kinda divorced..? My mom is in California.”

“You should get away from your father, Tommy.”

Tommy yet again froze in shock. He had barely ever considered being with his mother in California, it’d be so far from all his friends he’s ever had. He stared at Eret as if he was just told flying pigs are real and shown indisputable evidence for a moment, before the fact Eret was very correct hit him and he looked down, nodding. “.. I know.”

“Can you go to your mother?”

“I don’t want to. Almost all my friends are here, and sure I have some friends in California including you, but.. Everyone else is  _ here _ .”

“I understand that but unless you somehow get your mother and father to both give custody of you to someone else you need to go to your mother, he just hit you so hard that it’s already bruising, kid.”

“.. There’s no one I can bring it up to. Technos the only person I’m out to other than you who’s an adult and he lives in California.”

“Wilbur. Philza. They’re close to you, aren’t they? Tommy, they’re entirely accepting of LGBT. They accepted me. I know you might be scared but if coming out is necessary for your safety you should consider it. Otherwise, consider Techno or your mom.”

“..Okay. I understand.”

Eret smiled a little to ease Tommy. “You’re gonna be okay, Tom. You’re gonna be okay.”

Tommy sighed, “..I’m tired. I think I’ll head to bed now.”

Eret nodded, “I get that. Talk to me tomorrow?”

“Yeah. I will.”

“Goodnight, Tommy. Binder.”

“..Yeah, I know. Goodnight.”

With that, they left the call. Tommy anxiously did his night routine, changed out of his binder and day clothing into pyjamas and turned off the light, laying in bed.

His phone dinged and he flinched, before turning it on and checking the discord notification he’d gotten. In the DM he has with Philza, Techno, Wilbur, and Tubbo they had all sent their own respective goodnight messages to him.

_ ‘Night, Toms. I’ll be picking you up at 12, don’t forget.’  _ ~~ Dad? ~~ Wilbur. That wasn’t right at all.

_‘goodnight tommy, have good dreams’_ ~~Dad?~~ Phil. That didn’t feel right..

_ ‘Goodnight gremlin. I am 1v1ing you in Hypixel tomorrow.’  _ ~~ Dad? ~~ Techno. ..That almost felt right.

_ ‘night big man!! i’m excited to see you tomorrow! i want more chips!’  _ Tubbo. The only one he doesn’t need to worry about trying to get to have custody of him. Safe space.

He couldn’t help the little smile as he felt a little anxiety leave him at the fact he’d see his friends.

.. Then it returned when he realized they would definitely see the bruise. He glanced at the goodnight messages and used that to keep himself calm, sending his own.

_ ‘go the hell to sleep, goodnight dickheads’ _

And with that, he laid there for a few hours before finally falling asleep.

==

Tommy got woken up at 11:49 AM by his phone ringing. It was Wilbur. He quickly answered, “Wilby?” He muttered in his tired half-awake state.

“Did you just call me Wilby again-- No, whatever. Wait, oh my God, did you just wake up? Tommy, get ready, I’m going to be there in ten minutes.”

Tommy just about yelped and sat up, “What?!”

“I am going to be there in ten minutes, you idiotic gremlin.”

“Oh my god-”

“Get ready.” Wilbur repeated, causing Tommy to immediately hang up and jump to his feet, throwing on a binder, his signature red and white shirt except a long sleeve version of it, a thin jacket, and jeans. 

He glanced at his collection of various shoes, opting for some combat boots and giving himself a glance-over in the mirror, wincing as he saw that the bruise had gotten noticeably worse overnight. It hadn’t quite swelled, but it was a deep purple and blue and it hurt like  _ hell _ . 

He set a hand over it, quickly taking that motion back when it felt like he was punched again and deciding to not cover it, instead choosing to allow Wilbur and Tubbo to see what his asshole of a father did. That’s a good opener to asking to be adopted, right?

Well this decision set off an absolute panic in him when he heard the front door get knocked on. He did his signature high pitched yelp, though this time it was genuine fear, for a moment considering doing the best and yet fastest job at concealer ever.

He doesn’t have a concealer stick or palette.

He composed himself and ran downstairs, throwing the door open and quickly escaping out of it and slamming the door shut when his father was on the couch to see that Tommy wasn’t bothering to cover the bruises. He had seen his fathers glare when his face was noticed as he ran past, and he had noticed his father start to get up.

So of course, his reaction was to yell “Go go go!” As he jumped into the backseat with a horrible bruise on his face.

.. The best opener to asking to be adopted.

And the best way to make your best friend scream when he was in the backseat on the opposite side of where you jumped in and you just leapt onto him.

He got himself situated into the side of the backseat that  _ wasn't _ being on top of Tubbo and put on his seatbelt. This was in record time right as his father darted out of the house and Wilbur managed to get into the driver seat, barely even having buckled himself in as he already sped a little too fast out of the driveway, quickly correcting his speed as he got onto the actual road.

Which caused Tommy to burst out laughing, mostly from the sheer adrenaline of the situation as Tubbo sat there in confusion and Wilbur couldn’t slow his breathing.

“Tommy, what the hell?” Wilbur questioned in a nervous tone, getting his seatbelt properly into its slot to get the car to stop beeping at them. “Are you okay?!”

“No! But holy SHIT, that was funny!”

“No it wasn’t!”

“It was funny to fall on Tubbo.”

This got a concerned and surprised noise from Tubbo, who was still processing what the hell happened. Then Tubbo properly looked at Tommy and finally noticed the bruises, “Tommy?”

“Okay, my dad punched me yesterday.”

“Why?!” This time Tubbo was yelling. Huh.

Tommy let out a shaky sigh, the gravity of the situation now hitting him. He looked away from his friends, while Wilbur pulled into the parking lot of a McDonalds. “Well uh, I’m.. Transgender.”

“..What the fuck!?” Wilbur and Tubbo yelled in unison, causing Tommy to flinch and tear up, immediately expecting his friends to kick him out of the car or bring him back home and tell his father he did something good by punching him.

“That’s horrible, Tommy! He shouldn’t have done that. Where’s your mom? California? I will buy you a fucking ticket to California right now if I have to, I am not taking you home to him.” Wilbur said that, and Tommy quickly looked up at him.

“..Really?” The younger stared at him in surprise.

“Yes, Tommy. I’m not letting that happen to you.”

Tommy looked shocked, and when he didn’t say anything for a good five minutes as he processed what he just said Wilbur got out of the car, going to his side of the backseat and opening the door, hugging him.

That was enough to cause Tommy to start crying, hugging Wilbur back and sobbing into his shoulder while Tubbo unbuckled his seatbelt to move over and hug Tommy from the other side.

After some hushed reassurances from them both Tommy stopped sobbing and Wilbur let go, assuring them he’d be back before going into the McDonalds, Tommy and Tubbo sharing a confused look. 

It wasn’t long before Wilbur came back and put a McDonalds bag between the two since Tubbo had gone back to his seat to give Tommy a little space. Wilbur then hugged Tommy for an extra few seconds before going to the driver's seat and getting back into the road.

Tommy rolled down his window as he ate whatever Wilbur got him, not paying much attention. Once he finished he leaned his head against the door and closed his eyes, letting a few more tears slip since he could blame it on the wind.

  
  


.. And now he has to actually ask to be adopted.

That includes deciding  _ who _ to ask. How do you decide who to ask?

Calling Wilbur or Philza his father felt very wrong, even with Philza being the ‘father’ of their little family dynamic, and he really did see him as the dad friend of the friend group, but he didn’t see him as.. a dad.

Tommy's eyes narrowed, that left Techno as the last option, or his mother. But he doubted his mother was much different than his dad. He could risk it, right? Better than forcing his friend to worry about him and take care of him for no reason. He let his face relax and allowed tiredness from sleeping horribly to take over his body, causing him to fall asleep against Wilbur's car door with the wind rushing through his ears and Tubbo and Wilbur sitting in silence.

Even with the concerned atmosphere, Tommy felt calm. Wilbur had assured him of his safety, and Tubbo was there for him. He could relax and sleep.

And that’s what he did until Tubbo got the bright fuckin’ idea of unbuckling Tommy's seatbelt then going to his side of the car and opening the door, probably hoping to cause Tommy to nearly fall onto the ground, however instead Tommy just was caught by Wilbur who’d noticed what Tubbo was doing and walked over.

Tommy groaned at the fact his sleep was once again disturbed, glancing up at Wilbur then stepping away from him. “Fuck you, bee-man..” He muttered that and directed a sharp glare to his sleeps assailant, earning a mere shrug.

Tommy laughed quietly, looking over to Wilbur as he walked away and into the.. pretty large, house. Tubbo and Tommy followed him, though Tommy stopped when Tubbo stepped in, hesitating because he heard both Techno and Phil in the living room. He felt his world and thoughts get flooded with anxiety and panic, questioning how the two would react to the bruise, and how Phil would react to him being trans, if he’d get forced out of the house, or back to his fathers house, or--

Tommy was snapped out of it by Wilbur pulling him into a tight hug, causing his face to be hidden in his chest. “--ommy. Hey, bud, you’re okay.” He heard Wilbur's soft voice murmur things like that, and now he realized he was crying again while two concerned adults were in the doorway and Tubbo was beside him as he rubbed soft circles into his back.

Tommy quickly wiped his face free of tears and looked up to Phil and Techno, wincing simply at their immediate concerned looks. And the fact he had touched his face. “..Hi.” He also cringed at his own broken voice.

He flinched as Techno pulled him inside before he’d walked into the kitchen, coming back to the bruised kid and pressing an ice pack to his face, keeping it there until Tommy raised his own hand to keep it there, grabbing his bruised and slightly bloodied hand, using a wet paper towel he had gotten to wipe off the blood and then setting a cold cloth there to sooth the bruises. “Are you okay, Tom?” Techno finally spoke, looking him in the eyes. “What did your dad do.”

Okay so, flashback,

One time Tommy's father had yelled at him and Tommy went to his room and tried to call Eret and as soon as he heard the call joining noise he began to, in a panicked and very sob-filled way, explain that he was having an extremely hard day with dysphoria and then his father had screamed at him for asking for a new binder, and that he just wanted his breasts to be gone, which confused Techno and when Techno asked a very confused ‘What?’ Tommy had gone into more of a panic.

And that’s how Tommy accidentally came out to Techno and told Techno his dad sucked.

Flashback over.

And now Techno was comforting him a second time.

Or third.

Or fourth.

.. Or twentieth.

He went to Eret much more than Techno, but over the past couple years he has gone to Techno sometimes, whether it was accidentally or on purpose.

And now it was in person, and Tommy couldn’t help hiding his face in someone for the third time today and now it was Techno. He also hugged him very tightly, which was returned after a second. “..He hit me and I tried to hit him back and missed. It hurts. It hurts really bad.”

Techno hushed him quietly as the kids sobbing got worse, “I know. It does, I know, it looks really bad too. You’re okay, I’ve got you.”

Tommy slowly calmed and his breathing got back to normal. He sniffled, “..I’m going to California with my mom. Los Angeles.”

“..Okay.” Technos voice was calm and soothing. Not quite soft, but still soothing.

“I think I’m leaving sometime when you do.”

“I can add an extra ticket to my flight back.”

“..What?”

“I live in Los Angeles. So I’m flying there. I can add a ticket for you then drive you to your moms house when we get there-'' Techno was cut off by Tommy starting to cry again, pulling an instant ‘woah, woah, why are you crying? what's wrong? what did i say?’ out of the usually stoic man.

Tommy just smiled at him, “I just.. Can't believe you care about me so much.”

Techno shook his head a little, pulling him closer. “You’re my friend, of course I care ‘bout you.”

“Thank you.”

“No problem. Now you are not going back to that house, I don’t care if Wil already has given you or gives you permission or not, you are staying here.”

Tommy laughed slightly, “He already gave me permission.”

“Good.”

Tommy pulled away from him and wiped away the last tears from his little crying-on-Technoblade session, “Thank you again Techno.” He mumbled, stumbling over to and sitting on the couch.

“Stop thanking me.” He walked off, grabbing some ice cream and chips and coming back, setting it on the coffee table, waving the others over. “Lets just have a chill movie day, how’s that sound?”

Tommy nodded, smiling more as Techno sat next to him, Tubbo going on his other side and snuggling up to him, the elder teen hugging him tightly with one arm as he did. Wilbur sat next to Techno and wrapped his arm around both Tommy and Techno due to the fact Tommy was already leaning on Techno, while Phil sat on Tubbo’s side and set his hand on Tommy's shoulder, which also caused his arm to be on Tubbo's shoulders.

Tommy let out a relieved sigh and hugged Tubbo back, leaning further onto Techno.

“Hand me the remote, Techno!” Tubbo said excitedly, and he was handed the remote, quickly turning on the first movie he and Tommy ever watched together.

Mulan.

Huh.

Fitting.

  
  


The movie went well, and by the time they were done passing around the remote they’d watched Mulan twice (of course including tommy and wilbur loudly singing along to ill make a man out of you and causing phil and tubbo to laugh while techno was sometimes 'forced' into singing along or would snicker at some parts and the end, plus with tommy laughing when the emperor deadass walking off screen when shang shows up like "bye bitch", plus when mushu just "Light me", and i'll stop talking about funny mulan things now), Pocahontas, Princess and the Frog, Cinderella, and a few episodes of Lab Rats (tommys decision, almost everyone else hated it but let him anyway. Now it was 4 PM, and Tommy looked up at Techno. “Hey, big man, you challenged me to a 1v1.”

Techno grinned at the kid, ruffling his hair, “Yes I did. Are you taking me up on that offer?”

“Yep.”

And with that, they were off the couch and running to the computer room for Techno to give Tommy his laptop and Techno to use Wilburs gaming setup. Tommy settled onto Wilburs bed, where Tubbo decided to lay next to him and cuddle him (platonically) while Phil watched from Techno's view and Wilbur switched between them at different times.

Tommy won four duels, while Techno won five. Then everyone else got a turn fighting Tommy.

He won against Tubbo, lost Phil, won Wilbur, then lost against Techno again and won one more against Techno before they called it a day. The rest of the day was spent watching more Lab Rats and some DuckTales while they ate ice cream and chips.

It was a nice day weather-based, but nothing could beat the warmness he felt from his found family. Even so, he was still sad, anxious, and distressed. The fact they were there to help him eased him. He knew he was safe. He knew they were there for him. And he knew Techno would stay there for him.

As the outro for The Nightmare Before Christmas played, Tommy shifted to be laying with his head on Technos lap, Tubbo already having been laying across Tommys lap, so he moved to be cuddling him while laying down and using Techno as his pillow and Tubbo using an actual pillow. Techno allowed this, turning on another movie for him, Wil, and Phil to watch while the two kids fell asleep.

No weather could best this.

It wasn’t entirely sunny, it had it’s little rain in the night and morning, but now it had dew on all the plants and spiderwebs, and the parks were nice and cool even if a little slippery, and it had that nostalgic smell of rain. And you could relax.

And they relaxed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> wow, metaphors are at the end of this.  
> it didn't actually rain that's just how the emotions of the day went


	3. I Was Born This Way

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “They’re so pretty, it hurts! I’m not talking about girls, I’m talking about boys!”  
> “They’re so pretty, it hurts. I’m talking about both, but I don’t want my dick out.”  
> “They’re so pretty, it hurts.. I’m talking about boys, and I’m talking about girls!”  
> “They’re so pretty it hurts! I’m talking about boys, but girls are also a little pretty!”  
> -  
> aka i use page breaks for the first time wtf  
> do i owe anyone who actually wants to read this 2 chapters in one day now?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry this is literally 2 days late, the past couple of days have been kinda crazy
> 
> they never end up going swimming btw

Tommy woke up on the last day of the week his friends were going to all be together, of course feeling that pang of sadness hit him that you would feel on the last day of a ‘sleep-over’ that lasted a week with your friends as he glanced around the room Wilbur supplied him with for his week-long stay in the large house. 

It wasn’t an absolutely huge room, though it was pretty nice. It had a loft bed, with a little laptop underneath the mattress part on the desk and a few drawers in which clothes of various sizes were in right underneath the desk platform(which tommy can’t see right now he on mattress), fairy lights wrapped around the ladder and bars of the bed to provide a little light, with a remote controlling the dimness and brightness of the fairy lights and allowing you to turn them on. 

Along with that, there were shelves with several books on all of them, it seemed like Wilbur had shoved all his old school books into one of the shelves considering how many math books and books on how to write essays were on it. Why the hell did he have so many school books still?

Tommy was in the middle of a fairly large amount of anxiety last night, as he was most nights of this past week, so he had left them on in a middle brightness setting, though now he turned them off and climbed down the ladder before leaving the room to lock himself in the bathroom and change into fresh clothing after doing his morning routine.

He stepped out after around 10 minutes, seeing Wilbur walking down the stairs. He went to the stairs and walked down beside him, “Hey, Wil.”

The elder flinched, glancing over his shoulder and up at Tommy. “Jesus, kid, how’d you walk up behind me that quietly? That was horrifying.. Hi, Tommy. Good morning.”

Tommy smiled and laughed a little as Wilbur stepped into the kitchen, reaching the bottom of the stairs and sitting down on the couch, relaxing against the back of it while he waited for the others to show any signs of being awake. Or at least wait for Techno. Tubbo wouldn’t care about being woken up because he wouldn’t be woken up, that kid slept like a rock, and Phil just would come down and join in on whatever was being done to wake him up after brushing his teeth and changing.

Wilbur walked out of the kitchen with a couple glasses of orange juice, handing one to Tommy then sitting beside him. “Did you hear of the pride festival happening later today?” Wilbur asked, thoroughly confusing Tommy. No, he didn’t hear of it, but how did Wilbur? 

He pushed aside the thought, assuming Wilbur just thought of wanting to go to one for Tommy and looked up the date of one. “No, why?”

“I was thinking we could go, if the others wanted to.”

“Oh, sure. That sounds fun.”

That got a smile from Wilbur, who with that stood up, “There will be a pool at the festival, so bring some swimwear, alright? The shirt’s fine to keep on but bring swim shorts this time, you got my car seat wet.”

Tommy nodded, patting Wilbur on the back to reassure him his car would be fine, then closing his eyes to wait a little longer for Techno when Wilbur walked away. He still couldn’t help but worry in the back of his mind a little about who he wanted as a parent, he was extremely concerned about how his mother would react to him coming to stay with her even though he of course had already contacted her about it so they could work quickly to get her to have full custody instead of his father, which with the abuse evidence and key witness who was Eret, went pretty smoothly.

It gave him higher hopes of how his mother would react, but at the same time his mother left quickly after he came out, even knowing how his father was slowly getting worse towards him. It made him shudder when he remembered the screaming match his mother and father got into that day, though that was long behind him now even if it didn’t feel like it with how soon he was going to have to live with his mother again. She almost felt _equally_ as bad as his father due to how she allowed this to happen willingly, but he just tried to ignore that and think the best of her.

The kid started to fall back asleep, deciding to give himself a while of extra sleep, which lasted maybe half an hour before he was woken up by fingers snapping right in front of his eyes, which he opened and immediately saw a shirtless Techno in front of him which, quite frankly, just made him burst out laughing. Not because Techno was unfit, but because he was _ridiculously_ fit for a Minecraft youtuber.

Now I’m not talking full-on ripped, in fact he isn’t ripped at all, I just mean Techno seemed like he was just a skinny guy but he had abs and actual muscles in his arms. Actually, he could probably pick up Ranboo, who has a good 4 inches on Techno. That thought just made Tommy laugh more.

Techno stared at the kid who had woken up and immediately gone into a laughing fit for a few seconds, the poor guy’s expression one of pure confusion, then he just shook his head. “..Okay, I’m gonna let you come down off the laughing gas my finger snapping apparently fed you, but I’m still gonna let you know to get ready in like an hour ‘cause it’s an hour and a half drive to the pride festival. I’m shirtless ‘cause Wilbur demanded that I let him put _all_ my shirts in the wash, which apparently included the one I’d already been wearing, apparently because of covid.”

And now Tommy was laughing _more_ , right after he managed to calm down. “What the fuck?”

“.. I don’t know.” Was the only response he got before Techno walked away, allowing Tommy to finally calm and get up to go take a quick shower so his hair would have time to fully dry instead of still being slightly wet even once they were there because as his hair gets longer over time the amount of time it stays that annoying little bit of wet gets a little longer.

  
  


* * *

  
  


Tommy stepped out of the bathroom after taking a half hour long shower, right about to turn to the stairs when out of nowhere Tubbo quite literally _darted_ straight past him and to the stairs, or well tried to, instead whacking Tommy in the face with his shoulder and cause them to both stop moving while Tommy let out a loud ‘ow!’

And then Tommy understood why Tubbo was running. He heard loud footsteps and glanced towards them, they were coming from the direction Tubbo came from. Techno ran out of his room, and immediately Tubbo lost all motivation to apologize, instead opting to scream and run downstairs. Of course, this ended with Tubbo desperately hiding behind Phil who was now in the living room. 

Tommy was full of confusion, but at the same time he felt no need to know what the hell was going on, he simply decided to be on Tubbo’s side because he needs to get rid of what will soon become owing Tubbo one for Tubbo ‘saving’ him at the pier. So, he ran at Techno(who finally got his shirts back from wilbur) and tackled him which only resulted in him being picked up before Techno continued to chase Tubbo as Tommy let out a confused screech, clinging to the adult's shirt when he started going down the stairs because he was _not_ used to the feeling of being carried down stairs anymore.

Phil stepped to the side when Techno ran directly at him, entirely giving up on protecting Tubbo when faced with the terrifying man, prompting Tubbo to run and continue the chase. Then something happened to cause Tommy to understand why Tubbo was running because Techno was holding him in a way where he could see forwards.

Tubbo was running because of what just happened. Techno _dropped_ the youngest person here onto carpet and replaced him with carrying Tubbo upside down, pulling an immediate scream from the poor kid while Tommy got up and attacked Techno from the back, a bad decision because Technos an absolute _wall_ and Wilbur decided to go over and pick up Tommy and way too calmly set the kid on Techno's shoulders before walking across the living room then into the kitchen

Now, if Wilburs ceiling wasn’t a little taller than normal, Tommy would have immediately banged his head on the ceiling, but luckily he has maybe 4 inches between his head and the hard ceiling. 

Techno moved to be holding Tubbo right side up. “Wilbur, why have you decorated me with children like a Christmas tree?”

“You were picking Tubbo up and Tommy needed up too.” Was Wilbur's response that he called from the kitchen, which had Tommy immediately laughing way too hard and causing himself to lean back. A horrible idea when you’re six feet up and you're not secured by any hands because it caused Tommy to start falling backwards. Luckily Phil has the reflexes of a fucking cat (or father, which makes sense) and ran over to catch the child before he fell a second time except from a worse height, even if it was still onto carpet.

“No more putting children six feet up unless they are _secure_ like Tubbo is right now, _please_.” Phil requested, accompanied with a quiet huff of relief while he set up the kid who was far too tall for him to hold.

Wilbur shouted an ‘okay’, still in the kitchen, while Techno set down Tubbo then walked away.

That had passed a good ten minutes, so Tommy decided to go change into the most alt clothing he can find in the various clothing drawers Wilbur has in all the guest rooms. He _would_ resort to Wilburs own closet if he had to. (platonically ofc)

Which he did, in the end, have to. That was fine though.

He had decided to go with his signature T-shirt except with white in the base and the sleeves and top part being black and one of those black and white striped undershirts under it with only the sleeves showing, vintage-looking high-waisted black shorts that went a bit above fingertip length, held up with a black and white corset with a black mesh skirt overlay also held up by the corset. (which he isn’t sure why wil has either of those last two things) Underneath are black thigh-high socks that are high enough to pretty much not allow any skin to show, topping it all off with the Unus Annus beanie and black hi-tops with white accents then, as a last minute decision, adding red nail polish. Not quite his comfort zone, though it was what he found that worked well together and it looked pretty nice.

He exited the bathroom then proceeded to run to his room and shut the door behind himself so the reveal of his amazing outfit wouldn’t be ruined, putting the pins Techno had gotten him on his shirt. 

He took one more glance in the full-body mirror the bedroom had, making sure his shirt and undershirt were both properly tucked into the corset before deciding the corset most likely wasn’t done properly, and that the bow was even more likely to have not been done right considering his lack of sight of his back, so he opened his door a little called for the one person he trusted to not absolutely choke him considering he was in a combination of a binder and a corset. “Hey, Techno!”

He heard a tired sigh downstairs, then footsteps, before Techno went into his room, “Wha-- Oh wow, you’re genuinely getting dressed up for this. Honestly, fair enough, I was gonna go in something more underdressed for a pride festival. What’s up?”

“I can’t properly tie the corset without making it either too tight or too loose, help please.”

Techno laughed quietly, going over to Tommy and untying the corset. “Why did Wil have a- whatever. Don’t flinch.” He, with weirdly good skills, tightened from top to middle, then bottom to middle, then grabbed the loops and pulled kind of harshly, knocking the breath out of Tommy for a split second before Tommy could breathe surprisingly well. Then he tightened it again, and even if Tommys breathing was slightly more uncomfortable, it got better over the few seconds, until Techno decided to be an absolute sadist and tighten a _third_ time. Yet again it got better to breathe, and he was fine by the time Techno had gotten the bow in the back perfect. ”That good?”

Tommy made a distressed breathing noise which pulled a quick huff of laughter from Techno, then nodded. “Yeah, thanks!” 

He left the room, pretty much running downstairs which was a mistake, though he didn’t mind it too much, it was just something to get used to.

Once he reached the bottom he saw Phil, Tubbo and Wilbur on the couch, all of them dressed up other than Phil who had just wanted a band T-Shirt and jeans paired with sneakers, which no one minded.

Techno was wearing a black long-sleeve turtleneck under a nirvana crop top that barely even went above his belly button, meaning his waist-high black jeans mostly made it look normal. His shoes were black sneakers, his nails painted pink.

Tubbo had on his forest-green dress shirt, black dress pants, a green and black jacket with multiple bee patches and pins on it, a bee hair clip, then green and white combat boots that had bees on them while his nails were painted green.

And lastly, Wil wore a red beanie, yellow turtleneck crop-top with nothing underneath, black jeans, white and yellow hi-tops, ending it with his yellow painted nails.

Apparently, they accidentally _all_ made their nails their respective colors they were known for except Phil.

Huh.

“Wilbur, why did you have a corset?” Tommy finally asked after examining everyone's outfits, not really giving time for them to react to how much Tommy had dressed up. 

“I dunno, I found it at a store and decided “why the hell not”, it seems to fit you. Surprising considering your age.” Wilbur replied.

“I’m 6’3, I doubt it’s really that surprising that a corset fits me.” Tommy shrugged, then looked at Tubbo and smiled, “Well-dressed, mate.”

Tubbo grinned at the compliment, standing up from the couch. “Alright well, let’s go! We have a long drive to go to get there.”

  
  


* * *

  
  


Once they were finally at the festival they were fast to get out of the car, Tommy grabbing Tubbo and pulling him off to a pin stand while the adults headed off to do God knows what.

Tommy stopped at a seller who had pins, greeting her then slightly sheepishly though still happily looking at the pins while Tubbo slightly wandered off. 

Tommy ended up buying a he/him pronouns pin and a pin that had a nice trans and gay flag design then ‘Yeah, I Like Dick’ written on it. There were a lot of versions of it with other flags, so he was guessing it was from Erets quote and just done with several different flags.

He secured them onto his beanie, then went and found Tubbo, almost immediately getting a surprise from the other kid when he pointed at the side of his beanie the Eret pin was on and said, “Wow, I should get that, it’s pretty good.”

“..Huh?”

“Oh, right, I’m gay! I guess I should tell you that,” Tubbo giggled, “I of course didn’t mean that exact pin, since I’m not transgender, but a gay version, if they had one.”

“Oh, yeah, they did! I could get it for you. I was going to buy you a pronouns pin but then I kind of second-guessed myself and decided not to.” Tommy smiled at his friend, “I’m glad you came out to me, bud.”

“Yeah yeah, don’t pull that mushy stuff on me. You don’t need to buy me it, I’ll buy it! Go look at some more shops, I’ll find you.”

“Got it.” Tommy saluted jokingly for a second, then walked away.

He found Wilbur and Techno at a stand for flags. Techno was talking about what flag to get Tommy, while Wilbur seemed distracted.

“Hello, adults!” Tommy yelled, probably a bit too loudly, as he walked over and put his arms around their shoulders, “What’s up?”

“I was gonna get everyone flags then realized I don't know anyone's sexuality other than me and you, and I was gonna also get you a trans flag. And I dunno what the hell Wil is doing.”

“Looking,” Wilbur said after Technos full sentence.

Tommy laughed quietly at the difference that was usually the opposite, “What flag would you get, Techno?”

“Oh, asexual. I’m assuming you’d still get homosexual?” Techno answered, while eyeing the gay flag.

Right when Tommy was right about to reply there was suddenly a voice behind them, Tubbo. “Yeah, and I would too.”

“Oh, cool.” Techno barely reacted to it, it was a pretty normal thing at a pride festival to suddenly learn your friend’s LGBT apparently.

Actually yeah.

That makes sense.

“And Wil?” Tommy asked, tilting his head.

“..Bisexual.” Wilbur looked over, seeming a little more nervous than the others.

“Cool.” Tommy smiled at him, patting him on the back then stepping back to be beside Tubbo.

Techno promptly bought everyone their respective flags. Tubbo got a flag that doubled as a cape and a handheld flag and Tommy got the same, while Techno and Wilbur only wanted and therefore only got the handheld flag.

Later on they found Phil, who was talking to somebody about how to be a respective ally and properly handle various situations with your LGBT friends which, to be honest, made Tommys heart melt a little. Phil noticed the younger people and politely excused himself from the conversation, saying he needed to go back to his friends, and went over.

“Apparently everyone here is LGBT but you, Phil.” Tommy laughed, before walking over and hugging him, getting a little flinch from the older who didn’t expect the random hug, though hugged back anyway.

“I just about expected that.” Phil shrugged, letting go when Tommy did.

Tommy looked over to Wilbur, Techno, and Tubbo, randomly grinning as he noticed what song was playing. Girls by Girl in Red. He questioned whether or not it’d be rude to people from the Lesbian community or not, then hoped it wouldnt be as he spoke, “Do you think it’d be a good idea to wait for the chorus to this song then yell what correlates to our sexuality?”

Techno hesitated, then nodded while Tubbo enthusiastically said ‘yes!’ and Wilbur just did a thumbs up. Wilbur still seemed a little nervous from coming out to his friends.

They waited a few seconds, then..

“They’re so pretty, it hurts! I’m not talking about girls, I’m talking about boys!” _Tommy_

“They’re so pretty, it hurts. I’m talking about both, but I don’t want my dick out.” _Techno_

“They’re so pretty, it hurts.. I’m talking about boys, and I’m talking about girls!” _Wilbur_

“They’re so pretty it hurts! I’m talking about boys, but girls are also a little pretty!” _Tubbo_

Tommy caught a little smile on Phil’s face after watching the four scream out their sexualities, immediately letting a smile overtake his own expression.

"Are we gonna go swimming?" Tubbo asked after letting his throat recover from screaming that loudly after talking in a public volume for so long.

"..I don't think Tommy can without having to go through a corset being tightened on him a second time." Techno rose a brow. 

Tommy butted into the conversation, "You can go swimming without me, idiots."

"..Nah." Everyone but Tommy said weirdly in unison, causing Tommy to stare, then shrug, say "More for me", walk away, then run and jump into the pool.  
  


Which he quickly regretted as Techno pulled him out when he instantly screeched.

* * *

  
  


It wasn’t long before they had to go home, the five now in the car while this time Phil drove, Techno was in the front, Wilbur on the left backseat, Tubbo on the right backseat, and Tommy in the middle backseat.

They both had their windows down for Tommy ‘cause he’d gotten himself all worked up and hyper during that festival, and had temporary tattoos all over his face and arms now because of how many he bought.

Usually the sound of more than one window being open would be too loud for him, but all he could feel was calmness as he listened to the blowing wind, leaning towards Tubbo a little more 'cause the sound of cars rushing by was coming from his side more than Wilbur’s.

It didn’t take long for Tubbo to put an arm around Tommy, the two kids mostly leaning on each other and also the back of the carseat, soon enough falling asleep against each other, the only sound in the car being the wind and the quiet radio when Wilbur fell asleep as well and ended up with both the children leaned against him as they slept through the entire car ride.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'd like to mention they didnt yell it too loud  
> like most the people at the festival wouldnt have heard them over the music especially since they were in abit of a more secluded area where phil had been talking to a person


	4. We're Fine, No One's Gonna Catch Us Now

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> tommy finally gets to see his mom!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey!!  
> i just wanted to say i am going to be taking a break from this fanfiction to both work on a very long chapter and the 3 after it  
> i'll to finish the new chapter and the few after it within a week to have a few daily uploads to get to about chapter 7 and then do chapter and 8 and 9 much easier
> 
> it shouldn't take too long, just expect a maybe 4-day break after this one
> 
> sorry it took days to get this up, i was trying to find inspiration for what words to use. sorry it's short as well, that as the same reason

Tommy’s day after returning from the pride festival consisted of them going inside, hanging out and playing Minecraft, before Tommy went to bed and now is being woken up at 3 AM by Techno.

They had to be at the airport at 5 AM, giving them no time to say goodbye other than a very brief goodbye with Phil and Wilbur. Phil because he was the eldest and therefore told Tommy to let him know before leaving. Wilbur because he owns the house and honestly probably would have an anxiety attack before realizing it was their departing day if he saw them gone out of nowhere.

Tommy got off of his loft bed and looked up at Techno who was already dressed because they had to be out of the house as soon as possible due to the fact London airports were cheaper than the ones in Brighton and shorter and neither of them wanted to deal with overwhelming environments any longer than they needed to.

Techno left the room wordlessly to give him time to wake himself up and get ready, which he did. He didn’t dress himself past jeans, sneakers, socks and a dark red hoodie because god he was tired. He went and brushed his teeth, deciding to use Wilbur's dry shampoo to give his hair a quick spray because he had no time nor motivation to take a shower with how torturously early he was woken up. It wasn’t even _early_ , this is nothing but late.

He left the bathroom and went to Phil's room where Techno was waiting at the door, very lightly knocking on the door and then stepping in when he got no response, walking over to the sleeping man who was slightly stirred by the quiet knocking and waking him with a hug because Tommy didn’t want to wake him with a shake when it was so fucking **_early._ **

The adult woke up with a small tired sound, though quickly realized Tommy was hugging him and why he was hugging him, laughing a little at how tired the kid must’ve been as he hugged back. “How early has Techno woken you up, Tommy? Is he torturing you?”

Tommy let out a tired, “mmhmmm..”, before letting go and stepping back. “We’re leaving in a few minutes. So, bye.”

“Go say bye to Wil then. Bye.” Phil said while letting go of the kid and sitting up

Tommy nodded, stepping out and looking at Techno, who waved to Phil and said “Bye” before they walked off to Wilbur’s room and this time Techno knocked, except louder than Tommy had knocked on Phil’s door, before opened the door and seeing Wilbur who of course had gotten woken up by Techno’s knocking.

He walked over to Wil, “Hi. We’re heading out."

“Already..?” Wil sighed, “It’s so early.."

“I know.” Tommy shrugged.

Techno walked over and set his hand on Tommy’s shoulder. “I’ll text you when we’re at the airport and when we land to let you know Tommy’s safe, I know you worry.”

Wilbur smiled and nodded, “Alright. Bye.”

Tommy waved a little, leaving with Techno and getting into his rented car, texting Tubbo a heartfelt goodbye that he almost cried while writing, DMing Eret when he saw he was for some reason online,

‘ _eret, you actually awake?_ ’

‘Yes. What’s up?’

‘ _i’m going to california_ ’

‘ _with techno_ ’

‘Really? I’m proud of you. Be careful at the airport and on the plane. Remember your mask. How long’s the plane?’

‘ _11 hours_ ’

‘Sheesh. Is he trying to torture you?’

‘ _shortest he could get in london, actually’_

‘Aren’t you in Brighton?’

‘ _brighton costed more and was longer_ ’

‘Ah. Alright, well, I’ll talk to you tomorrow. Get more rest, it’s late.’

‘ _okay. you rest too. it’s late. goodnight_ ’

‘Night, kid.’

Tommy shut off his phone and leaned against the car door to his left, closing his eyes while Techno plugged his phone into aux and turned on some calm music to get him through the hour long drive before turning on the car and setting off for the airport in London, allowing Tommy to roll down his window, wrap himself in a blanket he had gotten permission to take for the car ride, and soon enough fall asleep.

  
  


* * *

  
  


Tommy woke up for a third time that day once the plane finally landed after he got around half an hour of sleep, the second time having been when he was woken up to go into the airport. He’d accepted no water or food, refusing to take off his mask, and Techno had done the same, which was kind of pain since it was an 11 hour flight. They were, of course, fast to get out of the crowded space, get themselves food and drinks from an airport restaurant, then head to the car park to get into the car Techno actually owned and finally go home.

The plan, since Techno had barely slept and Tommy was in the same situation due to both of them having a great amount of anxiety from the crowded places, was for them to go to Technos house, sleep off a few hours of sleep deprivation and then get Tommy over to his mothers house before Techno went back to own house.

So they did, eating in the car then heading to Techno's house where Tommy collapsed onto the bed and almost instantly passed right the hell out for around 4 hours before waking up to find himself in a car with his window rolled down. 

His tired brain did around five double takes, before he rubbed his eyes then looked at Techno who was in the driver's seat. “..What.. Is.. Did I- Why am I in the car again?” He asked, not sure if he had just dreamed of falling asleep in Techno's house or something.

Techno laughed quietly as he took the turn into the driveway of Tommy's mothers house. “You were very asleep, so I got you into the car as carefully as I could and you kind of slightly woke up and then fell back asleep five seconds later when I rolled down your window. Also, we’re here now.”

“Ah. Oh. Okay. That makes sense. Thanks.” Tommy opened his car door and got out, grabbing his backpack from the backseat. “..Really, thanks Techno. For everything.” His voice and mind betrayed his meaningful worlds, because he was half-awake still. That meant he whole-heartedly meant what he said, though.

Techno grinned at him a little, getting out of his car and walking over to hug the teen. “No problem. If you need anything, call me okay? I’m never too busy to help you.”

Tommy nodded, hugging back and leaning against Techno as long as he could until Techno pulled away when his mother left the house. Techno went over to his mom and shook her head, the two exchanging introductions and greetings while Tommy anxiously watched.

Techno gestured to Tommy, looking her in the eyes with an expression he knew his mother couldn’t read, and Tommy was too tired. He heard what Techno said though, “Here’s _Tommy_.”

Tommy’s exhausted brain could feel nothing but happiness when Techno put that much emphasis on his name to ensure his mother remembered, and his mother nodded, thanking him for taking Tommy all the way to L.A then her house.

Tommy walked over to Techno and hugged him again, wrapping both his arms around him from the side as his brain was kind of still half awake and just wanting to go back to the hug.

Techno laughed a little, hugging him with one arm, “Tommy, it’s your Mom. Go in with her.”

The only response from the teen was something unintelligible being murmured into Techno's shoulder tiredly, which was replied to with nothing but a shove of Techno's shoulder against his nose which got him to be fully awake and he looked at his mother who seemed very amused by the hug happening in front of her, until he let go of Techno and hugged her instead, the hug quickly returned. Techno walked away and leaned against his car door, patiently waiting for Tommy to say bye one more time.

It didn’t take long for that to happen, Tommy turning to his friend and waving, “Bye Techno! Again, thank you. I can’t thank you enough.”

Techno waved, “No problem. I’ll talk later, okay? Bye.” He got into his car and shut the door, pulling out of the driveway and heading home.

Tommy felt a sense of calmness replace his anxious state as he hugged his mother again.

“I missed you so much.” His mom mumbled, hugging him back.

“I missed you, too.” Tommy whispered into her shoulder.

She let go after a moment, taking him inside to get actual food into him after his full 15 hours without actual food.

Tommy sat on her couch while she went into the kitchen to cook, closing his eyes and listening to the sounds, letting himself relax, knowing he’d be safe with his mother.

He was safe now.


	5. With a Soul and a Dream

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> i'm sorry
> 
> -
> 
> "when they sold you the dream, you were just sixteen  
> packed a bag and ran away  
> and it's a crying shame you came all this way,  
> 'cause you wont find jesus in la"

Tommy had played around 5 rounds of Cards Against Humanity with his mother, and Tubbo on call, because Tubbo wanted to hang out with him and his mom wanted to meet Tubbo. 

His mothers mood had gotten more stiff over time as Tubbo kept calling him ‘Tommy’. Eventually it got late and Tubbo had to head off, so Tommy hung up and lowered his phone to his lap, instantly getting hit with a question that stung his brain and made his chest tighten.

“Are you still going by Tommy, or are you just too embarrassed to tell them you stopped?” His mother questioned, her tone indicating it wasn’t some joke Tommy could talk to her about. No, it was a genuine concern. Concern that he was still going by his name.

.. Concern that he was a boy.

“..My name is Tommy, mom. What, is something wrong with that?” Tommy mumbled out, hovering his thumb over where he knew the call button was, but he was stopped immediately by what his mother said.

“No it isn’t. You are my  _ daughter _ .”

Tommy switched to Eret and his DMs as fast and discretely as he could, having to glance down at his lap to see his phone. He hit the call button, silencing his phone so he couldn’t hear Eret but they could hear him and his mother, putting his phone's screen on sleep and setting it on the coffee table acting as a barrier of safety. “Mom, I am not your daughter. I’m your son and my name is Tommy.”

“Your name is not and never has been Tommy, you idiot. This is why I moved away, you are absolutely stupid, I couldn’t deal with it. You could’ve not forced me to take you back.” His mother’s voice seemed to contain nothing but malicious intent. Tommy held back the tears that threatened his little bit of power to stand up for himself.

“I’m going to my room.”

“That’s right, you are.” His mother stood up, grabbing him by the wrist and roughly yanking him up, barely giving him time to grab his phone so he could quickly wake the screen and hover over the end call button.

“Tommy tensed, inhaling sharply and loudly so Eret could (hopefully, assuming they had even picked up) hear that his mother caused him pain. “What?”

“You’re going to your room, and you aren’t leaving until you admit you’re lying to yourself and all of your friends. You got that?”

“No!” Tommy yelled, his voice nearly rising to the scream that he often had to use to get a word in whenever his father would yell at him, but he was stopped before he could continue or further raise his voice by a harsh slap to his face. “Mom-”

“Shut up, “Tommy”.” That wasn’t a way Tommy ever wanted to hear his name said ever again. The tears that were before just a mere threat were now an attack on himself, ruining his defense.

“Mom. Please, I don’t want to.” Tommy choked out through sobs, gripping tightly onto his phone.

“No, and give me that.” His mother grabbed the phone from him, throwing it across the living room and shattering it, thoroughly destroying it and removing him from call when it hit the wall and then floor.

Tommy got no more words in before he was dragged into his new room, the room locked from the outside. His room was on the third floor, he didn’t even consider getting out and somehow making his way to somewhere near Techno’s house before he shakily made his way to his bed and collapsed on it. 

The bed was small, but big enough for him, just smaller than that his father had. There was a dresser, a nightstand, some clothing in a closet, a desk with a chair, and no computer.

Maybe he was just used to the room full of what he’d bought himself, and what his father bought through what he’d spent with his father. But this just felt empty, there was pretty much nothing, and it was painful.

He felt horrible for calling Eret. He wished he hadn’t. Eret wasn’t going to call Techno, he knew that. Eret wouldn’t come themself, they had no idea of where Tommy was other than being ‘somewhere in LA’.

And Techno wouldn’t come without being asked to. No matter how much he was asked to by others, he wouldn’t unless Tommy asked. It sucked, but it was also to protect Tommy's privacy. There was respectable and appreciated reasoning behind it.

So why did it scare him so fucking much?

Tommy was pulled out of his thoughts by a particularly painful sob, realizing he was still wearing his binder. He couldn’t bring himself to take it off, it was the only thing that made him feel like  _ maybe _ he was a man. Just maybe. There was a blurred line between the binder making him feel like he could be a man and it making him feel like nothing but a woman. And at the moment, it was just in the middle.

He curled onto his side, shutting his eyes and trying to ignore his dehydration as he let the sobs slowly stop as he ran out of energy, having nothing to do but just fall asleep.

* * *

  
  


A few months passed. About four now.

Tommy put up with his mothers shit after a few weeks of absolute boredom, isolation and sometimes getting yelled at. 

Luckily she’d fed him, and his room had a small bathroom attached to it, so he didn't really need to leave his room. He could’ve lived there if he wasn’t a child who was far too brave.

At some point she’d finally allowed him to get a fairly good gaming setup, but didn’t allow him to get on discord for anything other than streams. When he had made the bold choice to attempt a “trapped in dangerous situation” signal, his mom was pissed and he passed it off as an accident. He only streamed a few times a month.

At this moment he was sitting at in a booth at a cafe, somehow he had managed to sneak his binder out of the house in his bag and shove it on in a bathroom stall as fast as possible as soon he was in the cafe and now he had taken his order which he drank as he sat quietly on his own, bored and upset with no distraction

His phone was never repaired, returned, or replaced. His mother knew he would just contact Techno and didn’t want to go to jail.

He shut his eyes tightly, considering getting up and running at that exact second to get to Technos house.

It could’ve been fine. They could talk about it, watch movies again, go on walks. It would take work with court for a while but eventually he could be part of Techno’s family, or somehow live with him in some other way. It would be fine if he just got up and  _ ran _ and--

His thoughts were stopped when he heard a familiar voice he couldn’t quite place the name of ordering a black coffee with no milk but with sugar.

Reminds him of Techno.

.. Technoblade.

_ Techno? _

Tommy looked up, recognizing the voice as the exact man he wanted a goddamn hug from right now. He waited patiently, not surprised when Techno sat at a booth only a few down from his own, Tommy wasn’t recognizable from a fast glance in a direction with his longer hair.

He waited a few moments longer to let Techno settle, then he picked up his drink and walked over, “Uh, Techno..?”

He almost expected something negative, or harmful, but all that happened when the adult looked up was at first a vaguely uncomfortable smile of a man who was about to go  Youtuber Mode ™ and do a typical greeting, then an expression of shock, then a fast hug that nearly caused Tommy’s tea to spill all over them both.

And then Tommy was sobbing into Technos shoulder again, mumbling incoherent sentences about what his mother had done.

A sixteen-year-old teenager sobbing into a twenty-one year olds shoulder out of nowhere had quite a few people looking over, some recognizing Tommy and Techno as the famous people they were and pulling out their phones to record, most likely assuming this wasn’t Tommy being as vulnerable as a kid got and instead was simply them meeting and Tommy being emotional.

Others recognized them but tried to get the ones recording to stop, also oblivious but not wanting their privacy to be utterly abandoned.

And then there were the many people who ended up brushing it off as nothing but two internet friends meeting and ignoring it, other than the slight glances at times of questioning whether Techno was a danger or not, not knowing how close the two were.

“Hi.” Techno finally greeted after a few minutes.

Tommy let out a soft laugh, pulling away to sit on the opposite side of his friend Techno sat back down, where he was before. “Hey, Tech.” He used one of the surprisingly soft napkins the restaurant had to wipe the tears off his face. “Sorry.”   
“Sorry? What for?”

“Cried on you again.”

“Seems like your mom’s been giving you shit. It’s alright.”

Tommy nodded slightly. “..Alright.”

“Do you want anything? I could buy you something extra. You’ve hardly streamed.”

“No, don’t use your money on me, I’m fine. I just came here for a quick drink and a chance to wear my binder.”

“She hasn’t been letting you wear a binder?”

“No. She locked me in my room for three weeks ‘till I gave up and went by her rules. Meaning now I’m not allowed to wear my binder, go by Tommy, or be called he/him pronouns, or anything else that would be dysphoria alleviating, not to mention the fact that she yells at me daily and has hit me multiple times.” 

Neither of them paid much attention, as the waiter stepped over and wordlessly set the black coffee on the table then left.

“..Tommy, I’ve done nothing but take you to a place worse than your father.”

“You tried to help me. It’s okay. And you did. I’m here now, where I have two friends way closer to me.”

“Why have you been so quiet?”

“I’m only allowed on discord for the rare times she allows me to stream. I’m sorry, it must’ve fucked up the SMP so much--”

“The SMP doesn’t matter in this situation. You do.”

Tommy stared at the table quietly, shocked by the words to the point he lost his own entirely. Then he started crying again.

Techno got up and went to his side, hugging him. Tommy could feel Techno watching him as he hugged back, quick to hide his face despite the fact he wasn’t sobbing, it was just silent tears.

He felt Techno rubbing smooth and gentle circles into his back, soothing him until no more tears fell and Tommy was calm enough to let go, though Techno stayed beside him, pulling his coffee to the side he was now seated on. 

“Do you want to stay at my house instead? Or do you want me to talk to your mom? Or call Eret so they can talk to your mom?” Techno asked, still using a hand to rub gentle circles into his back.

“I-- I want you to talk to her, please. If it isn’t too much trouble.”

“Of course it isn’t. We can go there whenever you want, alright? Whenever you’re ready.”

Tommy nodded, leaning onto Techno.

  
  


* * *

  
  


After around half an hour of catching up in the cafe, they returned the mugs their drinks were served to them in and got into Technos car, driving to Tommy's house.

Tommy looked at Techno with a look of fear when they stopped in the driveway, immediately gaining another hug. 

He pulled away after a moment and got out of the car after Techno, walking behind him until they got to the house then opening the door for him, being sure to go back to being only behind him once they stepped inside.

His mother was on the couch, clearly waiting for Tommy. She looked up, smiling at the two, “Hello, Techno.”

Techno narrowed his eyes, seeming immediately sickened by the thought of what the woman would have done to Tommy if he wasn’t there when the kid came back half an hour later than he was expected to and wearing a binder.

He raised his arm out to the side slightly so that Tommy couldn’t step towards his mom, using his other hand to gesture Tommy to the stairs, which he listened to quickly and went up, listening to them while sitting against a wall that would have him hidden in a hall from his mother but able to listen. 

He flinched anytime either of their voices raised to a yell, Techno working and taking none of his mothers shit to get her to understand her son’s situation while his mother took none of Techno’s shit to try and get him to understand her  _ daughter’s _ situation.

By the time his mother was starting to seem to understand he had been crying off and on for an hour.

Finally it went quiet, other than footsteps coming up the stairs, then Techno was kneeling in front of Tommy. “She seems like she understands. I’m not sure if she actually does but, hopefully she does.. Tommy, you can contact me anyway you can if you ever need me.”

Tommy nodded, standing up and going downstairs with Techno, who went to the door.while Tommy looked at his mom.

His mom smiled at him, and he looked at Techno, hugging him and leaning on him as he hugged back, stepping back when Techno did. “Thanks, Tech.”

Techno nodded at him, giving his mother a sharp look then stepping out. Tommy looked at his mom to see her with the same smile, returning the smile.


	6. That's Why I'm Fucking Leaving

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> hurt and comfort in one chapter  
> ... kind of-
> 
> -
> 
> "your city gave me asthma  
> so that's why i'm fucking leaving  
> and your water gave me cancer  
> and the pavement hurt my feelings.."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> please be careful about the tw  
> there's alot of harm done to tommy here, i was as careful as i could be with the tw's please let me know if there's anything else i should put a warning for
> 
> do people still use the word 'cuppa?' in european countries?  
> cause it was said to me once and now i just love it  
> i never say it, but i love it  
> also i used the british spellings.. and it confused me cause it was caused by me accidentally setting my thing that's kinda like grammarly to uk english  
> but now i kinda like it more

**-TW START-**

Tommy looked at his mom (let’s say her name is Roxanne for ease) to see her with a smile, returning the smile only for it to drop when hers did, but hers dropped to something dangerous.

He stepped back, wanting to hide, wait for her to calm. But before he could get any further, a harsh punch stopped him, blood rushing from his nose, any pain almost drowned out by adrenaline.

He inhaled sharply, covering his nose. “Mom, I’m sorry-”

“Shut the hell up, you idiot. Why would you tell someone? Do you want me jailed?!” Roxanne yelled, giving another punch which made Tommy dizzy, his ears ringing when she hit him a third time. 

One or two of Tommy’s teeth were now missing, and _something_ happened to his nose. 

Luckily Roxanne didn’t continue to hit him, and what she did was not causing anything fatal, though he felt like he was going to throw up while he kept himself from spitting out any teeth and blood that was in his mouth, choking out his next words, “Mom, please.”

Roxanne said nothing, going to his room, letting him follow then watch her smash his computer before grabbing a fallen out piece, giving his monitor similar treatment before grabbing the boy’s broom and throwing it out the room, “There are band-aids in there, deal with yourself. You’re grounded for two weeks.” She said, then left.

Tommy stumbled to the mess, picking up his trash can then using his hands to push the broken plastic and wires off the desk and into his bin, sobs finally racking his body when his hands and arms were cut, getting cut more when he set his bin down and picked up any computer pieces by hand.

He got his floor and desk clean, before getting himself into his bathroom.

He cleaned his arms with soap and water, his crying getting worse as his arms stung more. He turned the water off, pat his arms dry, and used band-aids to cover the cuts on his hands and arms.

Finally, he finished cleaning his arms up and soaked a rag, cleaning blood off his face and freezing at how bruised his nose was and the slight twist. He touched the bridge, flinching and hurting his ribs with a harsh sob.

He quickly took off his shirt and binder, afterward shoving his shirt back on while leaving his binder on the floor. He stumbled to his bed and laid down.

**-TW END-**

  
  


* * *

  
  


Tommy now has dealt with the same harsh treatment for a week.

Right now, he’s on his bed and cupping his nose, which has just increased in pain after getting punched a week ago, letting himself shake and cry since he doesn’t care about Roxanne hearing anymore.

Out of nowhere, Roxanne opened his door with a loud thud due to it hitting a wall, causing a louder sob to come from Tommy even though any attempts to breathe after it hurt his nose.

“Shut the hell up, I can hear you crying from my room.” She scolded, which didn’t surprise him, he always knew that she’d hear him. No matter what, they shared a wall due to her placement of office and bedroom.

“I’m sorry, Mom.”

“I said, shut up.”

“Sorry,” He repeated on accident, then curled in on himself more.

Roxanne walked over and pulled him off his bed, causing him to see himself in the full body mirror on his closet door. 

Covered in bruises and cuts that he’d given up cleaning and putting band-aids over after the first day, it was just too many. 

Some were looking gross, whether from dried blood or gunk. He took showers daily, but it hurt too bad to clean the cuts. He’s not that dirty, and overall he was clean and most likely would be fine in public if it weren’t for whatever Roxanne did to his nose. He was sure she broke it, but he couldn’t do much.

Back to a more important topic. He looked at Roxanne, **-SHORT TW START-** his eyes widening as he saw her pull back her fist, not having a good enough reaction time to move before she’d punched him in the face. Great, now he was missing another tooth and his nose was bleeding again. Just what he wanted. 

**-TW END-**

When she seemed ready to do it again, he ran to his bathroom, grabbing his binder off the floor and ramming his elbow into an in-operable window to break it before climbing out, sliding down the roof shingles and doing the best he could to not end up dying. 

He stopped himself at the edge, staring at the drop. 

He glanced down at the platform under him; he knew it had a support beam down to the ground. He lowered himself off of the one he was on, then stopped himself at the edge of the platform by digging his feet into it. 

Somehow that worked fine, and he got himself into a suitable position to slowly and carefully slide down the beam.

And as he touched the ground he immediately was running to the road, getting a few looks from people, especially younger Minecraft-loving ones, because he was a well-known YouTuber running down the street covered in bruises and cuts.

Despite that stabbing pain in all of his body parts, the panic coursing through him encouraged him to keep himself running for 15 minutes until he slid through a door of the café he had seen Techno at, able to slide thanks to a plant that was against it to keep it open since it was a nice day out. Too hot for any cuts on Tommy, but a nice day anyway.

He glanced around almost frantically, and as soon as he’d been able to decide Techno was not there, he heard the voice of a young man in front of him, right where he hadn’t been looking.

He directed his gaze to where the voice was coming from, seeing a teen no older than 17 who was maybe 5’7” in front of him, looking concerned. 

Then he realised he hadn’t replied to whatever he said, mainly because he did not know what the kid said, he’d got too distracted trying to see Techno. “.. What?”

“Are you okay, sir?” The short boy repeated, his brows knit in concern.

“Yes— No? N- I- Can I have a phone. Please?”

The boy grabbed his wrist and took him to a break room, where he gave Tommy his phone and allowed the younger to sit while he walked away to get something or other, Tommy didn’t notice what he said since he was too busy trying to enter Technoblade's number. He knew the boy said his name was ‘Robin’, though.

Finally, he was fairly sure he used the right number and hit a green phone button, messing with the fabric against his chest only to drop his hand since he isn’t wearing his binder. 

He then noticed an employee bathroom, going into it and setting Robin’s phone to its speaker option, letting it rest on a sink counter while he took off his shirt and got on his binder probably in record time, his shirt on right when Techno picked up. 

He grabbed Robin’s phone and took it off speaker, leaving the bathroom and sitting down.

“Hello?” A tired voice spoke. _Techno_. Of course, he woke him up, it’s 2 PM. What else would you expect from a guy who has spent entire days winning a potato war?

“Techno,” Tommy said, letting his tone communicate any urgency.

“.. Tommy.” All the tiredness seemed to disappear from Techno’s voice as Tommy could hear shuffling when Techno probably sat up. “What’s wrong?”

“I’m at that café, can you come to get me, please? I got hurt.”

“You’ve got hurt again? I thought she understood, Tommy.”

“She didn’t. Techno, please, it hurts. Come to get me.”

“Okay, okay. I’m coming, don’t worry. Do you want me to stay on the phone?” As Techno asked that, Robin stepped in, holding some things.

“No, this isn’t my phone and the boy who it belongs to, Robin, is back now. I’ll see you soon, Tech.”

“Okay.”

Tommy hung up, watching as Robin walked over, sitting in front of him and holding cotton swabs and hydrogen peroxide. 

Tommy tensed, knowing this would hurt, but let him gently rub at any blood and yellow stuff covering Tommy's cuts, Robin quietly apologising anytime he would wince or flinch.

Eventually, Robin got a text from Techno who said he was there to get Tommy, showing Tommy the text and asking, “This guy’s safe? You’ll be okay?”

“.. Yes, he’s my friend. Your name’s Robin, right?”

“Yes, what’s yours?”

“Tommy. Thank you, Robin.”

Robin nodded, smiling as he helped Tommy stand up.

Tommy let Robin take him to the front of the café. He glanced around for Techno, which was unneeded because Techno went to him without help.

Tommy hugged Techno as soon as he could, not taking long to let go, then turn to the kid next to him. “Robin?”

Robin looked up quickly, not seeming to have expected to get talked to. “Yes?”

Tommy opened his mouth to speak, though Techno did instead, “Thank you. So much.” Techno spoke, Tommy just nodding his head to confirm that was the gist of what he was about to say.

Robin smiled, “No problem. Um.. Are you his dad, or...?”

“No, a friend.” Techno answered.

“Oh.. Well, will Tommy be staying with you?”

Techno looked at Tommy instead of responding, to which Tommy gave him a look of ‘am i?’, so Techno nodded to Robin.

“Okay. Can I save your number so that I can ask if Tommy’s okay later?” 

Tommy smiled a little because of the friendly question he hadn’t quite expected, letting out a small chuckle while Techno simply nodded again, said ‘of course’, then shifted his stance to leave with Tommy.

“Wait, hold on--” Robin walked away quickly and behind the counter, putting a donut in a small paper bag then turning to Tommy, “Would you like a cuppa-” He paused when he noticed Techno's confused expression, correcting himself from his embarrassingly British mistake, “Would you like tea or hot chocolate?”

“What?” Tommy got thoroughly confused by the question, as they hadn’t asked for anything.

“I’m making you a drink and giving you a donut. For free, of course. You just.. Seem like you might like it.” 

Tommy chuckled yet again because of Robin being far friendlier than he had expected. “Sure. Tea.”

Robin happily nodded, turning away then soon leaning over the counter to hand Tommy the food, freezing when he instead got hugged by Tommy, though not taking long to hug back for the short time it lasted, maybe three or four seconds.

“Seriously, thank you. You’re amazing. Here-” Tommy quickly handed Robin a ten-dollar bill, “I know this is.. More than what a donut and tea are worth, but I just want you to keep this, okay? Like, put it in your pocket type of keeping it.”

Robin sighed, knowing just from Tommy’s vibes that there was no way in hell he was about to convince him to keep ten dollars. He put it in his pocket, “Thank you. And stop thanking me.”

Tommy shook his head, “Never. I think I’ve got to go now before my nose is broken ten minutes longer than it has to be.”

“Okay. I’ll ask your.. Uh.. Who?”

“His name is Techno.”

“I’ll ask Techno whether you’re alright later. Bye, Tommy.”

Tommy waved, then walked out with Techno, letting out a quiet sigh as he sat in the car, simply happy to be with his friend in a safe space, and finally going to a fucking _doctor._

  
  


* * *

  
  


Tommy currently sat on Techno’s couch, his eyes closed as he tried to adjust to the feeling of a nose plaster along with the weirdness of knowing his skin had stitches in some places. 

He had just been simply sitting there for a few hours, while Techno was across the couch. 

He hadn’t finished his tea yet and his donut hadn’t got touched, but that was just him not being hungry.

Finally, he opened his eyes when Techno tapped his shoulder, “Kid, we need to talk about this.”

“Huh..?”

“I’m not letting you go back to your mom.”

“.. Okay.”

“Do you want me to get you into foster, or do you want to be adopted by a specific person?”

Tommy hesitated, going straight back to his month-old thought process. Philza, Wilbur, or Techno. Then Eret’s also an option. When he was silent for nearly a full minute, just _thinking,_ Techno set a hand on his shoulder.

Tommy took a deep breath, “What’s the minimum age for adoption here?”

“.. Twenty-one.”

“So you.. Can legally adopt?”

“Yes.” It didn’t seem to process in Techno’s mind yet why Tommy would ask that.

“Do you want to adopt?”

And, it clicked, a few seconds late and because of what Tommy just said, but it still clicked. “Do you want me to?”

“Yes. I do. If that’s okay with you?”

“Okay.”

“.. Okay?”

Techno nodded, smiling at Tommy, “I know you trust me. I understand. I’ll adopt you or beat up the judge in court.”

Tommy couldn’t help his momentary state of disbelief, but then he of course was fast to hug Techno, crying into his shoulder while Techno rubbed his back. “I will not let her get to you. Okay? You’re entirely safe, I’ll protect you no matter what.” Techno mumbled, 

Tommy nodded, “Thank you. Thank you, Tech.”

“No problem, Tommy.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i like robin..  
> possible recurring character?  
> if robins a recurring character this will get ALOT longer  
> love story..  
> no.  
> i will refrain.  
> robin is 16 by the way, he just looks a little older than he is  
> he's also 5'5, tommy was wrong
> 
> this chapter in general is based around the entirety of 'your city gave me asthma', as in the album, as well as treehouse by alex g somehow i dunno the vibes probably just carried over cause i listened to it so much over the 3 days i took writing this  
> how is it so short and bad after those many days
> 
> god i'm sleep deprived  
> also the adoption laws in this fanfic aren't canon to california, leave me alone /lh
> 
> edit: WHY DID I SAY 'CANON' I MEANT TO SAY 'ACCURATE' WHAT THE FUCK  
> HOW TIRED WAS I


End file.
